The ''Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtra'' (
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
; , Tib. ''dam-chos dkon-mchog-brtsegs-pa'') is an ancient collection of
Mahāyāna
''Mahāyāna'' (; "Great Vehicle") is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices. Mahāyāna Buddhism developed in India (c. 1st century BCE onwards) and is considered one of the three main existing br ...
Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
sūtra
''Sutra'' ( sa, सूत्र, translit=sūtra, translit-std=IAST, translation=string, thread)Monier Williams, ''Sanskrit English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, Entry fo''sutra'' page 1241 in Indian literary traditions refers to an ap ...
s. It is also known simply as ''Ratnakūṭa Sūtra'' (), literally the ''Sutra of the Heap of Jewels'' in
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
(''kūṭa'' means ‘accumulation’ or ‘heap’).
Overview
The ''Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtra'' contains 49 texts of varying length, which are termed "assemblies" by tradition. This collection includes the ''
Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra
The ''Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra'' (, '' of Queen Śrīmālā'') is one of the main early Mahāyāna Buddhist texts belonging to the Tathāgatagarbha sūtras that teaches the doctrines of Buddha-nature and "One Vehicle" through the w ...
'', the ''
Longer Sukhāvatī-vyūha Sutra'', the ''Akṣobhya-vyūha Sūtra'', a long text called the ''Bodhisattvapiṭaka'', and others.
[Sangharakshita. ''The Eternal Legacy: An Introduction to the Canonical Literature of Buddhism.'' 2006. p. 168-169] Part of this texts was brought to China and translated by Bodhiruci in the 8th century. Bodhiruci translated some of the texts, and included others which had been previously translated. This later Bodhiruci should not be confused with another
Bodhiruci
Bodhiruci () was a Buddhist monk from North India (6th century CE) active in the area of Luoyang, China. His 39 translated works include the ''Ten Stages Sutra
The ''Ten Stages Sutra'' (Sanskrit: ''Daśabhūmika Sūtra''; ; ) also known as th ...
who was the translator of the commentary on
Ten Stages Sutra
The ''Ten Stages Sutra'' (Sanskrit: ''Daśabhūmika Sūtra''; ; ) also known as the Daśabhūmika Sūtra, is an early, influential Mahayana Buddhist scripture. The sutra also appears as the 26th chapter of the '' ''.Modern Buddhist studies schol ...
.
The ''Ratnakūṭa'' collection totals 49 Mahāyāna sūtras, divided into 120 fascicles in the Chinese translation. Garma Chang, who is listed as General Editor of a volume of select sūtras from the ''Mahāratnakūṭa'' translated from Chinese into English, (see below, Further Reading, Garma C.C. Chang, (1983). ''A Treasury of Mahāyāna Sūtras: Selections from the Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtra.'' Title Page) summarizes the breadth and variety of texts contained in this collection:
In the
Taishō Tripiṭaka
The Taishō Tripiṭaka (; Japanese: ''Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō''; “ Taishō Revised Tripiṭaka”) is a definitive edition of the Chinese Buddhist canon and its Japanese commentaries used by scholars in the 20th century. It was edited by ...
in volumes 11 and 12a, the Mahāratnakūṭa is the text numbered 310, and texts numbered 311 through 373 are various other translations of some of the sutras contained in the Mahāratnakūṭa.
List of sutras
The 49 sutras found in this collection are as follows:
#Trisaṁvara-nirdeśa
#Anantamukha-pariśodhana-nirdeśa
#
Tathāgatācintya-guhya-nirdeśa
#Svapna-nirdeśa
#Sukhāvatī-vyūha
#
Akṣobhya
Akshobhya ( sa, अक्षोभ्य, ''Akṣobhya'', "Immovable One"; ) is one of the Five Wisdom Buddhas, a product of the Adibuddha, who represents consciousness as an aspect of reality. By convention he is located in the east of the Di ...
-tathāgatasya-vyūha
#Varma-vyūha-nirdeśa
#Dharmadhātu-prakṛty-asambheda-nirdeśa
#Daśadharmaka
#Samantamukha-parivarta
#Raśmisamantamukta-nirdeśa
#Bodhisattva-piṭaka
#Āyuṣman-nanda-garbhāvakrānti-nirdeśa
#Nanda-garbhāvakrānti-nirdeśa
#Mañjuśrī-buddhakṣetra-guṇa-vyūha
#Pitāputrasamāgama
#Pūrṇa-paripṛcchā
#Rāṣṭrapāla-paripṛcchā
#Gṛhapaty-Ugra-paripṛcchā
#Vidyutprāpta-paripṛcchā
#Bhadramāyākāra-vyākaraṇa
#Mahā-prātihārya-nirdeśa
#Maitreya-mahāsiṁhanāda
#Upāli-paripṛcchā
#Adhyāśaya-saṁcodana
#Subāhu-paripṛcchā
#Surata-paripṛcchā
#Vīradatta-gṛhapati-paripṛcchā
#Udayanavatsarāja-paripṛcchā
#Sumatidārikā-paripṛcchā
#Gaṅgottarā-paripṛcchā
#Aśokadatta-vyākaraṇa
#Vimaladattā-paripṛcchā
#Guṇaratnasaṁkusumita-paripṛcchā
#Acintyabuddhaviṣaya-nirdeśa
#Susthitamati-devaputra-paripṛcchā
#Siṁha-paripṛcchā
#Upāyakauśalya-jñānottara-bodhisattva-paripṛcchā
#Bhadrapāla-śreṣṭhi-paripṛcchā
#Dārikā-vimalaśuddha-paripṛcchā
#Maitreya-paripṛcchā-dharmāṣṭaka
#Maitreya-paripṛcchā
#Kāśyapa-parivarta
#Ratnarāśi
#Akṣayamati-paripṛcchā
#Saptaśatikā-nāma-prajñāpāramitā
#Ratnacūḍa-paripṛcchā
#
Śrīmālā-devī-siṁhanāda
#Ṛṣivyāsa-paripṛcchā
History
According to the ''Nikāyasaṅgraha'' (a
Theravādin
''Theravāda'' () ( si, ථේරවාදය, my, ထေရဝါဒ, th, เถรวาท, km, ថេរវាទ, lo, ເຖຣະວາດ, pi, , ) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school' ...
text), the ''Ratnakūṭa Sūtra'' was composed by the "Andhakas", meaning the
Mahāsāṃghika
The Mahāsāṃghika ( Brahmi: 𑀫𑀳𑀸𑀲𑀸𑀁𑀖𑀺𑀓, "of the Great Sangha", ) was one of the early Buddhist schools. Interest in the origins of the Mahāsāṃghika school lies in the fact that their Vinaya recension appears in ...
Caitika
Caitika () was an early Buddhist school, a sub-sect of the Mahāsāṃghika. They were also known as the Caityaka sect.
The Caitikas proliferated throughout the mountains of South India, from which they derived their name. In Pali writing ...
schools of the
Āndhra region.
[Paul, Diana. ''The Buddhist Feminine Ideal.'' 1980. p. 12] The texts of the sutra seem to have been collected over a number of centuries, and their varying subject matter is suggestive of historical transitions between major eras of Buddhist thought.
The collection may have developed from a "
Bodhisattva
In Buddhism, a bodhisattva ( ; sa, 𑀩𑁄𑀥𑀺𑀲𑀢𑁆𑀢𑁆𑀯 (Brahmī), translit=bodhisattva, label=Sanskrit) or bodhisatva is a person who is on the path towards bodhi ('awakening') or Buddhahood.
In the Early Buddhist schools ...
pitaka" attributed to some of the early Mahayana schools.
References
Further reading
* Garma C.C. Chang, trans. (1983). ''A Treasury of Mahāyāna Sūtras: Selections from the Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtra.''
*Pederson, K. Priscilla (1980). "Notes on the Ratnakūṭa Collection" in Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 3 (2), 60-66
External links
* {{cite web, url=http://www.lapislazulitexts.com/tripitaka#ratnakuta, title=Taishō Tripiṭaka: Ratnakūṭa division (English translations), publisher=Lapis Lazuli Texts, accessdate=2014-06-29
Mahayana sutras
Vaipulya sutras